Friday, May 29, 2009

What's Up With Ferarro & Paladin Schmaladin?

I have to take a quick time-out from the norm to outline a concern that I have about the honesty of blogging and bloggers. For those of you who normally read blogs, it may impact you on some level, so it won't be a complete waste of your time.

If you found yourself over at fellow WoW-blogger Ferarro's website today, Paladin Schmaladin, you were greeted with a new message that the "blog is open to invited readers only." According to her Twitter updates, she believes that she has a stalker, and things are getting a bit too uncomfortable with all of the private information she has been posting.

Now let me be serious for a second (it's all I can muster): if she does have a legit stalker, she made the right decision in closing shop. Playing it safe is the only way to go in that scenario. There is nothing worse than feeling exposed, after all (we Warlocks know that all too well). However, I am getting reports that the stalker story is about as straight as Tom Cruise, and that I should have listened to my mother when she told me to never believe everything I read on the internet... that I don't write myself.

According to multiple sources in-WoW and out, Ferarro was outed as a fraud when an astute Warlock posted a convincing link on the WoW Forums, pointing to a website called TechDarling. All over the site are pictures of a girl that we know as Ferarro. In fact, many of the pictures there are identical copies of those we've seen on Paladin Schmaladin. But instead of the WoW game-tester we all know, we see a real-life social-blogger who is into the tech scene and has posted pictures from various blogging expos and web design events -- pictures stolen by and featured on Paladin Schmaladin and that Ferarro presented as of herself, and her job as a game-tester for WoW.

Doing a little bit of digging, it seems that all of the self-portraits posted of Ferarro on Paladin Schmaladin originate from TechDarling and its author's own web pages, including Facebook and Flickr. In fact, there are many images there that authenticate TechDarling as the legitimate source and owner of the pictures and events. Oh, and btw, WoW is never mentioned on these other sites. Not once.

So what does all of this craziness mean, exactly?

Well, for starters, a bunch of love-struck boys are going to experience some heavy frustration when this comes to light, and we are bound to see some nerd rage soon. For bloggers like me, it is a little disheartening. Ferarro has basically been lying about her identity for years, and stealing someone else's content and posting them as her own. She has taken advantage of another blogger and her reader's trust, and that makes my job as a fellow blogger just that much harder.

On a WoW-related front, this mess also means that Ferarro isn't a game tester for Blizzard. The "game-testing" images that were posted on Paladin Schmaladin were relabeled TechDarling images that were taken at a blogging expo.

I gotta admit, just thinking about this gets me a little angry, and my mind is going crazy with a series of difficult questions: what drives a person to do this kind of thing? Why would anyone lead people on like that? And for what means? And do you know what the worst part about this whole thing is? Paladin Schmaladin was a great resource and excellent WoW blog. Why it needed to be masked by someone else's pretty face is straight attention-whoring.

And here's a piece of advice from your friendly neighborhood Warlock Therapist: if you post someone else's picture and get caught, don't take down your blog and try to explain it away as a problem with a stalker. Don't go into hiding and conjure up 7 different identities when that doesn't work either. Fess up, make things right, and move on. It may hurt at first, but it is the only way to help guarantee yourself respect and friendship in the long-run. And lets face it, you owe at least that much to your readers, right?

It will be quite interesting to see where Ferarro goes from here. While watching the changing status of Paladin Schmaladin's accessibility, I wish her, or him, some much-needed sanity.

I am Jagoex. I'm a husband, a father, a professor, and a warlock. That's all you need to know. ;)

UPDATE: Apparently, Ferarro has closed her Twitter account and many of her articles at Retpaladin.com are MIA. Threads started on the WoW Forums linking to TechDarling or this post are being reported as harassment and immediately removed. Also, many young boys are in complete denial.

UPDATE 2: TechDarling is aware of what is going on and according to her Twitter page, she was unaware anyone was stealing her images and content and using them as her own.

UPDATE 3: Retpaladin.com admins played no hand in the posts that were being deleted on their website, and were clueless on what was going on until after the fact. Also, Ferarro's character on Alexstrasza is no longer showing up on the Armory.

UPDATE 4: Paladin Schmaladin is available for viewing once again, with a long explanation of what has happened -- including a creative story detailing 7 different owners of "Ferarro" the Paladin.

UPDATE 5:WoW.com just posted a very detailed look into Ferarro's explanatory post, basically debunking her statement that Ferarro was operated by 7 different people over the years.

Oh Jago, you know how this will play out don't you? It happens all the time. She'll play the "stalker" card until you go away or people will forget, and then she'll start all over again. People like this would rather be someone else than themselves, and at any cost, because on the internet, there isn't any real cost in their minds.

Just so you know, any post on the Paladin class forums that even mentions your article or what happened is mysteriously disappearing. It looks like someone is trying to report them all. That's a guilty behavior if I ever saw one.

At first I felt bad that she felt she was being stalked, but now with this information coming to light, it seems less likely that its true, as it would be hard to have a reasonable explanation for all these examples of questionable identity.

Just to add a bit more I found. As you reported, all her posts from RetPaladin.com are gone. So is her account from the forums. I don't know if deleting her account deleted her post, or she deleted them and then closed the account. Regardless, if she had any admin privileges for their forums, they are gone.

So who deleted the post asking about what happened to her? It was created by a person who made their account specifically to do so, and then was responded to in like by more 1st posters, which was curious in of itself. It was up for 1 day, and then disappeared.

So either the owners of RetPaladin.com know something we don't know, or "Ferraro" has asked them to delete comments about her because of the stalking.

That was my first guess, actually. But after seeing a chunk of the material it is highly unlikely that is the case. And just think about this: why would all of Ferarro's stuff disappear while TechDarling's remains available?

"And just think about this: why would all of Ferarro's stuff disappear while TechDarling's remains available?"

Maybe she just lost interest in the WoW scene? Maybe she doesn't want it public knowledge in her professional life? There could be a dozen other reasons, and we don't know the person well enough to say either way.

Again, I tried very hard to believe the best of things, but we are pretty much well beyond that point now that TechDarling has caught wind of this (thank you, Anonymous), and has had a few things to say already...

"UGH-some creep on WoW named Ferraro has been using my photos?"

"You have to be kidding me, even WoW.com wrote stories about this creeper?"

"Ha, I guess. The thing is whoever this person is they're on my FB friends because they have photos from private albums!"

"Maybe she just lost interest in the WoW scene? Maybe she doesn't want it public knowledge in her professional life?"

WoW.com JUST did and interview of her 4 days ago.

http://www.wow.com/2009/05/26/15-minutes-of-fame-ferarro-revs-up/

That sure sounds like a person just "losing interest".

If you have a point, argue it. Dont just argue because you want to argue.No one knows the full story, this article seems to me to have been made to put together the info we know. Until "Ferraro" actually speaks out or someone comes up with some actual proof as to what happened, we are free to speculate.

I think you're right in asking if there are legal issues here. Ferarro wasn't an idiot and apparently got away with stealing someone's persona for years. S/he probably also knows that doing so carries some serious consequences, and that is why s/he is in hiding.

Although what's interesting now is to see what was actually real or not. Certainly the paladin guides were actually useful to many players.

What about all the bragging about being a "external" Blizz tester? How much of that was real? Makes me wonder if it was all falsified, why didn't Blizzard crack down on it sooner, as he/she seemed fairly prominent even before the Wowinsider feature.

It was. But the thread I posted TechDarling's link into vanished the morning after it was posted -- but not before people had seen it.

I have known Ferarro (well, I can't really say that anymore can I?) for a few years and have always been suspicious of her identity. I only recently stumbled upon TechDarling when Ferarro posted a picture of a baggage claim tag with "1337" written on it, from a trip she said she had just taken.

I had seen that image somewhere before, and did a Google Image Search that led me to TechDarling's blog. Needless to say, my suspicions were confirmed, and that is when I posted the link in one of her congratulatory threads.

@Anonymous

S/he is not an external game tester for Blizzard. The company does all of it's own testing internally.

Ferarro is a liar.Ferarro doesn't work for blizzard.comFerarro is the stalker.

i didn't believe it, but after reading the information here and at techdarling I do. And being the spurned ferarro follower I am I reported it to the powers that be as a serious issues. I think only Blizzard and wowinsider aren't taking this seriously.

In the "Life's a grave" article, she claims to have been hunted down by a guy on Friendster during her senior year of highschool. If she's 26, that would have been somewhere in the range of 1999-2001, Friendster wasn't even founded until 2002. In her interview with WoWInsider, she claims to have discovered WoW when she was 16, which would put her at 21 years old at *most*.

I could go on and on, but the more I read her old stories, the more obvious it is to me that this person was living in her own fantasy land, and may have serious self-esteem and identity issues. It's kind of sad, really.

Couldn't it be that they are the same person? And the reason the paladin site got removed is in fact cause of her agreement with blizzard? IDK just playing devils advocate here.

I just got into reading her blogs, I (while i may not be as techy, or as big of a number cruncher as other people) think myself as knowledgeable in paladins (from info I learned over the years playing them) i will try to help others out and do what I can.

1) The Paladin Schmaldin site is down, no response, twitter account gone.

2) Tech girl site is up, and calls Ferarro a "creep".

3) The whole "working for blizzard", doing theory-crafting and getting paid for it, but not actually a Blizzard staffer shtick just screams fake to me. Why would Blizzard hire a raid group to raid for them; shouldn't all that stuff be done in-house?

If Ferraro is TechDarling, why would she not just come out with it? Why would she deny any knowledge of creating a very popular WoW blog that would probably increase the visitors to TechDarling as well, increasing her net popularity?

Would the logical course of action then be to claim being stalked, then delete all your presence from the internet..... EXCEPT for your real blog, TechDarling?

It doesn't even make twisted psycho sense. I don't believe for one second that is the actual situation here.

one of "her" other chars:http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Alexstrasza&n=Briarosehttp://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=13275619931&postId=132739559066&sid=1#34

that "everdash" seems to be his/her another usernamesferraro had account "imtheoneinblue" on photobucketbut the other one she used many times was "everdash", containg images related to ferraro chars in wow

now check the comments they both made on mmo-champion forums,http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?action=profile;u=35494http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?action=profile;u=25736theres threads made by Ferraro, then bumped by everdash

comment on mmo-c by everdash:"e4e wasnt needed - it reverse scaled with resilience."

on wow.com by ferraro:"E4E wasn't OP, especially considering it reverse-scaled with Resilience."http://www.wow.com/profile/2059397/

---

theres most certainly is no "outsourced test groups" working for bliz

but

lots of her infos and knowledge was quite high grade

she did post those WotLK box leaked images on her site way before any other site, claiming her friend worked on the printing/making of those boxes or something

and considering everything shady thats been happening now on forums and other sites she was part of,my theory is that the person might actually been someone really working somehow in bliz related spot, perhaps some lowlevel GM etc(maybe with access to email sending from bliz servers asking to take materials down ?)

but thenagainhttp://media.photobucket.com/image/imtheoneinblue/xabercrombie00x/kpandcpbabyy004.jpg

I guess I did not make my devils advocate clear. Maybe the way to close down ferraro blog was to create the identity crisis. While we all know it is not the same person it is still funny to find a way that they "could" be the same person.

Well didn't see this comming, really just thought it was a helpful wow player trying to help other wow player's out.

Never guessed for a moment it would turn out to be an internet buffalo bill type scenario, the whole someone wanting to be someone they're not.

Question is now though, did the guy's over at retpaladin.com know about this? Also didn't "ferarro" have guildies on wow? Surely an ex-guildy could tell us all if it was indeed a female or male voice on vent or whatever?

did "ferarro" have everyone fooled? this discovery seems to be spreading like wild fire atm!

I feel sorry for techgirl, to find out that some random girl/guy was stealing your identity, to then use it to create their own fantasy life/world, it must really be a bummer :( wonder if we will ever hear from "ferarro" again?

I feel sorry for techgirl, to find out that some random girl/guy was stealing your identity, to then use it to create their own fantasy life/world, it must really be a bummer :( wonder if we will ever hear from "ferarro" again?"

I doubt Ferraro will show her face in the paladin forums, she in fact changed the name of her old paladin and also made a server transfer.

Check it out, she posted in this thread: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17367879647&sid=1&pageNo=2

To all who are interested, this Ferraro character is indeed a phony. My name is Sarah Townsend, I run TechDarling.com (which was just recently moved to a new platform, in the process of moving to new hosting and getting a redesign, so it's a mess, I apologize). The blog used to be owned by TomsHardware.com(I used to work for them), which earned me more than a couple of strange fans. However, I've never been on World of Warcraft, nor have I ever written on that blog or posted on any of those forums. Whoever this Ferraro is, they seem to know a lot about WoW, so I don't doubt their intellect on the subject, just their morals and possibly their sanity. :)

I'm not sure I want to publicize this nonsense any further by making a blog post about it, but I'm happy to provide whatever proof necessary that the photos and videos previously known to many as "Ferraro" are in fact me, Sarah Townsend.

In a new interesting note, The thread on RetPaladin.com that was asking questions about what happened to Ferraro yesterday that disappeared has been verified by Megaphone that it was Ferraro's login that deleted it.....

Ok, at this point it's obvious that Ferraro is not who she says she is, she's been stealing identities... etc, etc... we all know this.

However, there are a few things that don't add up.

First of all there's the few inconsistencies that people are spotting now (such as the marketing thing mentioned on her profile) that were left in from before. If you'll allow me to play armchair cop, mixing in a little bit of truth with the lie makes the lie stronger.

I believe that, inside these inconsistencies, the truth, or some of it, is revealed.

Second of all, (s)he had shots of WotLK's box way before everyone else. Which means she had an inside line of some kind.

*Puts on conspiracy hat*

So, I'm going to go with... Blizzard marketing dept employee. Maybe even an actual female one (girl writing as a different girl is easy. Guy writing as a girl is harder). Marketing thought of a great way of getting an 'in' with the blogging community, or at least a way of getting some 'leaks' out that they had control over. Ferraro was created as a trial, a proof of concept experiment, using TechDarling's images as a cover, simply because it was easier and it didn't matter - it was only a temporary trial. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it took off, and Blizzard was forced to carry it on. From there, it spiralled, with Blizzard forced to make the lie more expansive, fill the backstory with more 'personal' detail. It may not even be a sanctioned Blizzard thing, just one employee giving something a go as an experiement that suddenly took off.

Fast forward to this week, Jagoex does his digging and finds all this. Marketing girl is caught... and Legal finds out. Suddenly everything is damage control. Impersonation of this sort may not necessarily be illegal (I'm not sure if it is or not) but it would certainly be a bad idea for Blizzard to be caught like this.

So everything is hidden, Ferraro is renamed and transfered (all several versions of her, unless those extra pictures on the WoW.com article were not Ferraro characters) and community managers manage the forums, trying to keep everything as quiet as possible. Which explains how quickly the threads were locked down in the early stages.

So basically, a Blizzard department, or a lone employee, is behind this. S&*t hits the fan, Legal panics and all this happens.

*Takes conspiracy hat off*

Or it was just one loan freak who wanted friends.

Actually, side point: Blogs can make money, and quite a lot of money too. Best way to do this is through more visitors. Best way to get visitors? Have good content (ie, write what you know) and something else that attracts people to your site. In this case Ferraro clearly knew her subject. And everyone knows that a hot girl who is into the same things as he is every male nerds fantasy... ergo, money making exercise becomes conspiracy :D

PS, if anything, this has finally proved the age old rule 'There are NO girls on the internet' - and espeically not in WoW :D (joke, I know there's at least one!)

Interesting theory, but it's doubtful this was some sort of viral marketing. Blizzard couldn't have used Sarah's likeness without her permission as Ferarro did illegally, not to mention that blog existed for a year+ before the box art leak.

Ferarro most likely knew somebody working at the printing press that was making the box art, as she originally claimed. This person probably wasn't an employee of Blizzard, nor was Ferarro.

Ferarro retroactively changed the story from "I got this from a friend at a printing press" to "I work for Blizzard" when she realized she could get more attention by claiming to have insider connections and information.

Mostly because of your idea of it being a test, and then it got popular. So what? Popular blogs close all the time, and some people just stop blogging and never say a word. Both of these ways to stop would have been less suspicious than just deleting everything.

Also, Blizzard making a blog acting like they are some young cute lady, sure I could see that. Ripping images and content is pushing it really far. They could have just as easily used someone on their staff, or hire a model for some pictures. Stealing someones online identity is moral gray area at best. I don't see them putting themselves in that position.

I'm not trying to say your dumb and wrong, I'm all for coming up with ideas as to what really happened, as I doubt we will ever hear from Ferraro, but I don't think the Blizzard story holds much water.

What's even more comical is that I followed "her" on Twitter earlier this week and tweeted that I thought stalking was "fun", however I wasn't eluding to "her" at all. I was referring to in general. She then tweeted "Stalkers are cool."

I naturally thought she was talking about me and got paranoid, but at least I know now it wasn't me, rofl.

"Why would anyone lead people on like that? And for what means? And do you know what the worst part about this whole thing is? Paladin Schmaladin was a great resource and excellent WoW blog that a lot of people enjoyed and depended on."

Of course you understand this. The blog reached the prominence it did because of who the author claimed to be. Independent publishing offers only so much meritocracy; and then it's marketing, marketing, marketing.

So much information in such a confined space. Thank you all for the insightful comments.

@Sarah:

Thank you for clarifying your place in all of this. It is strange to be stalked, I am sure, but to be stalked by someone with access to private images on your Facebook and who is impersonating you in an online world is another beast altogether. I'm glad to see you handling it so well!

The whole explanation reeks of the same conspiracy garbage someone posted here. Confabulation and hot air - how hard it is it to pass off a blog with paladin math and a decent, honest personality behind the guides?

ElitistJerks may get a lot of flack but they aren't trying to be something they are not. On the contrary, I'd say they are brutally honest.

Regarding the article explaining 7 Ferarros or whatever the hell it was trying to say, you know what it sounds like? It sounds like a stalker who is thinking about how he can save the life he has created for himself and thinking very hard about how to do so. Setting things up so that there are several other people involved removes singular responsibility AND allows for mistakes that are made to be explained away with "oh that was someone else!"

It is full of lies too. If you work at Blizzard you cannot talk about ANYTHING AT ALL. You cannot have a personal blog. You cannot talk about your job in detail. And you sure as hell can't post guides to encounters. This is all common sense!

As nice as this drama has been, this ferarro persons efforts are exhausted. I'm just fed up now.

Has anyone mentioned how much legal trouble she can get into for this? Impersonating someone else on the internet is a misdemeanor, and she just confessed to it and got 6 others involved too. And all for what, maintaining a lie? She is obviously just trying to save face with this latest one.

I'm failing to see where any legal action could take place on the grounds of impersonation. Sarah's name was not assumed, merely her likeness.

There was no libel or slander, nor were any contracts or legal agreements defaulted on.

While this debacle has caused quite a stir, in the courts only two things reign supreme: legal documents and monetary value of loss.

At this time, it would appear that there is no evidence of the latter, precluding the existence of the former.

Was this, at most levels a wrong thing to do? Probably. Yet, it must be classified as morally wrong. There was no game of three card monte involving the loss of revenue or assets; "merely" a serious lapse in judgment, potentially on the part of multiple individuals.

Don't worry, she didn't get 6 other people in trouble. It's just one crazy person trying to place the blame on imaginary people and explain inconsistencies in her fabricated backstory.

Even in her explanation, she lies. She claims this blog has existed for 5 and a half years, despite the fact WoW hasn't been around that long, and the blog was started in July 2007.

Ferarro gives herself way too much credit for how important or popular her blog is. The concept that it took *seven* people to maintain this blog over the course of 22 months is ridiculous. The concept that they needed to maintain a secret identity in order to protect the "idea" of Ferarro is ridiculous. The concept that they receive thousands of emails a week is ridiculous, considering an average blog post of hers generates maybe a dozen comments each.

Why is she the only Blizzard employee that's allowed to blog so openly about working for the company? Oh, wait, that's right, it's because she's lying.

It's not true that you can't have a personal blog while working at Blizzard. I know someone who works there full time while maintaining a personal blog.

I think they've become a bit more lax in that area. I remember a couple years ago the most he could say is "I work for a game design company on the west coast" or something of that sort. Now he can at least mention where he works and what his job title is.

Then there's the most obvious example:http://www.wowwiki.com/Geoff_Fraizer

That guy has been running his personal blog for years, going back to the Starcraft days, and everyone knew who he was and where his blog was. I'm not sure the word "blog" was even around back then =p

Teej, I'd suggest thinking along more law school lines here. Burden of proof, semantics, etc.

Baldly saying "she's lying" is outside anyone's scope in regards to this latest post until it's proven in solid facts, on the same level as the ones Jago dug up in the first place.

It is, however, perfectly reasonable to state "I don't believe a bloody word of it, I think it's utter shite."

TBH, my bullshit meter blew itself apart as I read that post. The burden of proof she has to verify everything written is gargantuan. At the same time, we have a burden of proof to state definitively that the post is bs, too.

The blog began under a different name on or around July 10, 2007. How do I know this? She sent me an email telling me about it, and it is still in my Gmail archive.

See, Ferarro and I actually go way back -- 3 years, approximately. If you go to her "15 minutes of fame" article that WoW.com posted and read the first 3 comments, you'll realize just that. She mentions Onyx (my old Horde guild from when I first started playing WoW 3 years ago) and talks about my "backhanded" comments (again, from commenting on her blog years ago).

There is simply no way for a "new" Ferarro to know these details--and this is definitely the same one we have come to know over the years, pulling the same stunts, etc. And everyone who used to play on Alexstrasza back in the day will tell you the same thing.

I believe we must be somewhat careful in being accusatory. I read the anonymous post about a potential misdemeanor here, and I do not believe it applies in a situation such as this one, where damages do not really exist. Of course, one could argue defamation or property concerns, but I'm not sure how far that would get.

In terms of the truthfulness of her latest post -- I put the burden of responsibility squarely on her shoulders. She must prove every word she says in that post. Otherwise, I believe it is safe to make the assumption that it is fabricated (especially given my history with this individual, outlined in my previous comment).

@Dr. Aislinana:

Mine didn't make the cut, either. By filtering her comments, the lies simply continue, even if they are a bit more indirect.

@Anonymous:

Regarding Blizzard's policy on employees and personal blogs as it relates here: posting "guides" for WoW is a definite breach of contract and the NDA. That is a given, friends.

See, the thing is that the moniker of "Teej" has been passed on between seven different people as I've commented on this article, and we all swore ourselves to secrecy that we would never tell anybody that it has been passed on from person to person.

well funny thing is man you're probably getting as many hits here as s/he ever did at that blog.

btw the internal inconsistancies in that story are ridiculous. it sounds like this idiot made themselves a forum personality on the us forums judging by the response, and now can't handle the flak, so came up with that cock and bull story. theyve now been found out as not having attractively shaped mammary glands and are now claiming to be someone else. presumably untraceable.

as for we eu'ers i don't think we could give a rat's arse. like i said, so much for global reach. we got our own drama and forum personalities and even they don't post often.

I love how the bulk of the comments on the post were more or less "It's okay bahbee your content rox we luv U Fararri do more posts!"

To anyone who still wants more paladin content from that site: that person(s?) just committed identity theft. What is it to say they won't mind throwing some banner ads up in the future with some malicious code?

2) One or many people who created the blog as a money making exercise, and used the Ferraro persona as a marketing trick. Who are now desperatly trying to salvage everything so they don't lose their nest egg.

I introduced my conspiracy theory as a reason why everything was deleted and taken down, as I've dealt with legal departments before and their response to anything bad is 'make it go away and hope no one calls us on it'. Removing everything rather than coming clean straight away screams lgal department. But meh, conspiracy theories are almost never true.

One of my close friends works for Blizzard, got on board right when they were about to launch WoW. He had to transfer off of our server because it slipped in our officer chat one day that he worked at Blizzard.

Someone *knowing* his character name was enough to get him fired at work. They are under lock, stock, and key over there.

This mountebank likely got ahead *because* of the attractive pitch, and not so much because of the writing -- if each of us spent a few hours looking, we'd probably find weblogs of comparable quality, albeit lacking the advertising that had this one rocketing upward.

As for the internet, at the same time it allows a group of skeptics to quickly expose fraudulence, it provides a series of redoubts for con artists. WoW Insider was taken in, for goodness' sake. Lazy reporting, surely, but a testament to certain advantages online enjoyed by liars.

"We've investigated, and have determined based on IP address records of comments left by Ferarro on WoW.com between July of 2008 and May of 2009 that the comments all came from the same small subnet of IPs, and are all geographically very local to one another. This means that unless "Ferarro #1" through "Ferarro #7" live within a few miles of each other, they're the same person."

I was actually surprisingly impressed with Adam's investigative work over at WoWInsider. Kudos to him. I was assuming they would do a GuildWatch-esque drama rag on her.

If anybody needed burden of proof (not that we did, this isn't a court trial) that Ferarro's explanation was fake, I think the IP address information pretty much proves that it was a lie. Ferarro has already shut down her website yet again, so this article definitely struck a nerve with her.

As fascinating as this development has been over the past three days, I'm kind of hoping it just gets laid to rest.

Just for the record, I suspect this person has been following me for a long time. The quote on her blog "Be who are you, say what you feel, those who mind don't matter, those who matter don't mind" etc etc - was on my MySpace profile some 4 years ago. She also has images of me from 4 years ago, that have not been on any websites since then. I didn't start TechDarling until 2.5 years ago. Just food for thought.

She also stole other aspects of my life, like the fact that I live in LA, and am from Virginia, and who knows what else now that her blog is private I will never know what other pieces of my personality she has stolen.

Thanks for the kind words about me handling it well, but those of you who saw the doctored video from SXSW will know that this has happened to me before, many times, in very creepy ways, but never before were this many people fooled. So yeah it's creepy, but whatever. If someone wants to steal my persona online, there's not much I can do to stop them. I live a pretty public life, so it is not hard to do so.

Ferarro's entire blog is super watered down though. She spent a lot of time removing past entries. You're probably better off looking at Google cached websites. Somebody posted a link to one such cache...

you basically stole some poor woman's identity and stalked her for about 4 years in order to use her identity to apparently flirt your way into guilds and write posts in a wow blog. now you're talking bullshit about it.

really poor form, man.

feel sorry for you Sarah. the fact people do this kind of shit makes you despair for mankind.

Hey there Jago, just saying hello. I'm playing WAR now and ran into an old Onyx guild member and he just got me thinking about all the fun we used to have hanging out on vent. Good times, man, good times.

Another EU guy here...As an avid wow.com reader I was also redirected to Ferarro's blog a few days ago, and had seen her comments on the site before.This person self-styling her- or himself Ferarro is some schizophreniac or just a very very maniac liar. From self-experience, when you lie and think it'll work out all good, it won't...And now s/he just propels deeper and deeper down the maelstrom of lies she wove around her- or himself... And she is panicking, as well, seeing the rampant activity on her blog, closing and opening it, posting fake 'I'm still ur fan ur hawt' comments and such... A weak soul doomed to an end, desperately seeking a way out... But ignoring the right one.

Just my two cents. ;)Ugh, some of the metaphors are quite... well done, seeing I'm not English at all :-)

Another thing to think about. Why would Ferarro be trying to get incriminating threads removed from the official forums? A number of us have been banned because our posts linking to this story were labeled as spam or harassment. That doesn't seem like something someone who is apologetic would do.

Seriously, leave the internet for a few hours, and everything moves on!

Wow, thing have kind of exploded since I last looked. Wow.com proved that all Ferraro's from last year or so have actually been the same Ferraro, thus making "her" argument about multiple Ferraro's completely mute...

Ferraro's blog has been taken down, then put back up, then taken down... is it back up again yet? I almost don't want to look!

Certainly things have been moving... I also find it interesting that my conspiracy post appears to have been taken seriously be a couple of people on the WoW forums. Do people not know what a conspiracy hat is?

If anything, this whole episode has taught me two things:

1) I need to get twitter, if only to follow all this stuff kicking off in more real time!

2) TechDarling has been more than gracious throughout this entire episode. Seriously, she's been amazing in her attidute to what's been happening here. I know that personally, if I discovered that someone had been stealing my identity for last 2 and a half years (or five and a half, if you believe the latest Ferraro post :D) I'd be a lot more freaked out. I'd also like to thank TechDarling for not posting a blog article about this mess. I'm willing to bet that her publicly announcing this to her readers would result in more than a few 'omfg you wow freaks' comments on here and wow.com which would certainly not be good for the community.

That said, I do predict that "R U Ferraro?" will become the new internet meme of 2009. I certainly plan on whispering it every paladin I find, anyway :D

One questions I have if there were 7 Ferarro's? Was this a group stalking of tech Darling. With all of them so criminally amoral none of them ever thought it was a problem? I doubt the current Ferarro can get a single old Ferarro to fess up. Because they don't exist. But hey I thought there was a blonde Ferarro also.

And would anyone put it past Ferarro to phish on her website. To generally abuse her relationship with Wow. In a community of 11 million suscribers a certain percentage of them will be low life criminals.

But Jagox, thanks for the expose and followups. This is much more refreshing wow forum than what pretends to be the official forums.

Maybe I should dump this pallie I play for a warlock. Never played one for long.

It's been stated before, but people who comment on the blog debunking what has been said, their post never makes it into the comments. Seems like this Ferraro is keeping a close eye on everything and only allowing positive posts to pass through. Who would have thought?

Jago I have to give you mad props for exposing this fraud. If you don't mind I'd like to post my rejected comment from her site here so people could choose to read it.

"Oh my sweet Jesus.

Just give up please, just give up and leave. You understand that you're not just messing around, YOU ACTUALLY STOLE SOMEONE'S IDENTITY. I don't believe a single word you have in this article.

I can tell you why'd you'd lie now: You're desperate for attention. Just saying "Oh, I got caught, that was all me" means you'd have to slink back into the shadows but coming up with this laughable fantasy allows you to keep the drama and attention going AND keep your blog. I don't believe for a second you would step away and I completely expect to see a post in not to long from now saying your back because the people wanted it. Or more likely you'll claim it's ANOTHER Ferraro that's stepped up to keep it going. Give me a break. I can not believe anyone is buying this.

Let's say for a second you're telling the truth (I can barely even write that.) Why would the blog just not have been passed on publicly to another author instead of creating this elaborate lie? If the original author had enough faith in the next-in-line to continue to the quality of work surely they'd have faith that the readership could pick that up.

Also why steal Sarah Townsend's personal articles from her own site if you were just using her as a cover for this. It makes it obvious you were in fact hoping to supplant her personality for your own. "Surely people would love you like you do her."

You also make so many weak and transparent statements in this 'explanation' like assuring us the original Ferraro was very attractive. Yeah f-cking right. Let me be the first to say that looks are not as important as some people think but your assuring us reaks of an insecure person bolstering themselves through using a supposed other person's point of view. Also you repeatedly let us know how beautiful and intelligent you think Sarah Townsend is. We see through this that she wasn't just a random identity used as a facade but actually the object of your deeper obsession. On her for a minute, why her? If this story of yours was real why not just some attractive unknown so your lie would never be found out rather than an attractive tech-savvy blogger. Is it because she's the epitomization of 'cute geek girl' that you are either attracted to, or aspire to?

I don't get it. I really don't. You must have been smart in order to have provided the high quality of paladin information you did. It saddens me to think that someone that smart would feel it necessary to hide behind someone elses identity.

All I can say is I'm sorry for being part of this world you must find so scary and you don't need to tell us the truth, but please, please, step away. I'm not going to say you need professional help because that always comes across so hostile but I do think it would be better for your mental health in the long run for you to step away.

Good Luck.~Sentient."

Also as another commenter mentioned. My forum signature has just become "I was Ferarro #5." LOL! And nice work again.

I then browsed through the friends list, just curious. I was looking for a link to Sarah Townsend since in one of Sarah's earlier post she mentioned that Ferraro had access to private FB photos, which meant she was a FB friend.

I have not found these yet -- there are any number of degrees of separation to Sarah Townsend -- but of interest is that there is one friend named Crystal Perry.

"Crystal" is the name used by Ferraro and the paladin-in-our-guild whenever she came on vent or took over the paladin-in-our-guild.

Two things possible:

1) These people are unaware victims of a further identity fraud,

2) These people are at least in part connected to the fraud happening so far.

It seems to me that these two have been in a 4 year stalk of Sarah Townsend. I read some numbers that lead to inconsistencies in the age Ferraro claims to be and as such I am hestitant to believe these two are in fact a married couple. They look like they'd be more likely to be brother sister, but who am I to say?

I can't edit my Anon comment about Ferraro mentioning Neil, but if you go to the Google cache of her site, you can find references to "Neil" (Cntrl-F search Neil) on the first three months. I didn't look at the rest, so there may be more...

Jago, you are my man. Well done. I have 1st seen this ferroro while she was QQing about how the legendary mace should be given to paladins. I thought what a kid.Then i posted a provokative message under her post(to test her), saying that I talked to her GM and the mace will be going to priest CL :) She kinda freaked out and said stuff etc, then I knew that she was too immature... later on i saw her again on wow.com and kept on the mace provokation, she was QQing etc when she said shes a blizzard employee, i did not even believe her wish i was the one who found out this but you did since you know her more, you are my main man, well done.she certainly is an attention seeking ugly girl, i read ur comments and all of them r right, like if shes the 7th ferrero, how she would know 3 yrs back, etc.You are the greatest!I hope blizzard or sarah sues her.

It could be a case of ye olde "sock puppet", i mean to a certain degree it could make sense that they are one in the same person and the whole affair is a way of maybe cuttin herself out of the WoW scene.

However, there's alot of "evidence" and rumours floating about atm suggesting otherwise.

Wow. I looked at the cached content, and was increasingly skeezed out the more I read. It was the post that accompanied the photo of a bird on (ostensibly) her shoulder, the post that prattled on about how it (the bird) was a gift from her step-brother, and how it needed a name, that really made her/his delusional presence creep me out to the max. Yeah, so techgirl has a photo of herself with a bird, and this encourages you to steal said photo, and proceed to spin a whole scenario that involves *you* receiving a bird? A bird that needs a name, and sits cooing on your shoulder?

I posted on the Wow.Com entry about single IPs, and RDP'ing into a XP box, but forgot to mention that I don't believe a word of her explanation -- just that it is possible.

That said, I don't buy into the theory of Sarah = Ferraro / Sock-puppet. I've read Sarah's blog for awhile now, and I vaguely remember when she was at TomsHardware. Distancing herself from the Ferraro identity.... why? Sarah is an admitted "Geek". Being a 'famous' WOW entity wouldn't hurt her rep, it would expand it.

My take is that Ferraro's "explanation" is that it's mostly bullshit, with enough truth thrown in to give it flavor. Multiple Ferraro's? CHECK! Her and her husband.

The problem with people that are willing to excuse evidence to the contrary of what Ferarro is lying about, despite being a "good paladin" resource is that they are allowing a "good resource" to excusably:

-profit off someone else's work-profit off someone else's image-not a pay cent in reparation-creepily abuse some sort of online relationship with the person in order to create said identity

This gives the message that, oh, if you apologize and lie about it, you'll be tearily accepted by the hordes of people who just want paladin info. What an entire populace of selfish, creepy WoW fuckbags.

I recently started reading Ferarro's blog, and found it a very good paladin resource.

My first clue something was wrong was the "DM of the Rings" series she started posting, which --as another commented mentioned-- was never attributed, despite the fact that I'd seen it elsewhere years ago.

Ferarro's current story of 7 different Ferarros is ludicrous. For all the reasons mentioned above and at wow.com, but also due to the simple fact that it's nearly impossible to keep a secret like this. "3 can keep a secret if two of them are dead". The idea that 7 people were able to keep completely mum on this, not one of them leaking info or becoming disgruntled with the rest and sabotaging them, for this period of time, is highly unlikely.

I did some digging, on "ferarro's" confession page on "her" blog right at the top you'll find the word Catharsis. I wiki'd the word wondering what it means, here's a brief look at what that word means:

"The term in drama refers to a sudden emotional climax that evokes overwhelming feelings of great sorrow, pity, laughter or any other extreme change in emotion, resulting in restoration, renewal and revitalization in members of the audience"

Ok simple enough, so i carried on digging. I went onto:

http://www.wow.com/2009/05/31/the-curious-case-of-ferarro/10#comments

and read the comments on each page and kept comming along a poster called Catharsis80, their profile is here:

http://www.wow.com/profile/2876375/

If you look you'll notice this user has been created soloy to comment on that thread in particular, by why the name Catharsis80? Along with the word Catharsis at the top of "ferarro's" recent "confession", same person? i think so, take a look at the comments Catharsis80 has left on wow.com also, can you say sock puppet?

Honesty is always the best course of action regardless of the situation. I liked the blog and took a lot of good information from it. But now I have to question everything I have read there because of this.

No dude, I'M Catharsis80. I also post as Catharsis, and my character main is Kathandor. If you really care, go to WoW.com, look up my profile, check out everything you want. I already posted on "her" article that I was a little spooked that the title happened to be my screenname that I've used for YEARS. PLEASE don't implicate me in this crap. I've been new to WoW for about a month now.

Yes, that's correct. I just registered so I could comment on this whole thing. That is my name I've been using for years, it's my AIM screen name, and I'm not about to change it simply because some identity thief uses it as the title of her article.

I feel for Ms. Townsend, and I think that she is an injured party in all of this. It must be a terrible feeling to be stalked, internet or otherwise, but she seems to be handling it better than most would, I would think.

I don't feel that she is the only injured party in this, though, to be sure. I remember the first time i met Ferraro. I had just merged our guild with the guild she was in on Alexstraza. S/he joined the guild right after we did, I believe she came from Idiocracy. S/he was out grinding ogres at the northern ogre place in Nagrand ( warmaul hill maybe? I can't remember, have not played in almost a year ). As the officer in the new guild in charge of recruitment and janitorial services, I would sometimes roll out and talk to people, meet them face to face. Well, Torrak told me that this new guy was pretty cool and a good raider, so as I said, I went out and helped his/her paladin grind out a ton of ogre rep. Well, we were on VENT together, even though her mic was broken, but she could hear. Anyway, while I was out there, I heard Bouncer say 'Ferraro is hot!' I typed at Ferraro 'lol lad, they think you're hot!' His/her response was 'LOL'. Well, then I found out later that she was in fact a female, and her husband, Neil, was also in the guild, a shaman. Can't remember the name, been a while. I went on to raid 5-mans with them a few times, three times I think. I'm not sure now who Ferraro is, but I will say this, they are a good player, in my opinion. Really studied the raids, knew everything about them ( I am still famous for my lack of focus on raids, and I don't even play WoW anymore ). I don't feel that the 'husband' in this was dual-boxing two accounts, as he would have to be superman. I remember several 5-mans I was in with Fer and Neil, and they both were way too active to be controlled by one person. Anyway, to circle around back to my point, I feel for Ms. Townsend, who has to put up with this junk, but no one has yet come out and said anything about the old guild she was last in, and what this stuff might be doing to them. To be sure, they are nice people, I know for a fact. They took her in to be nice, not to use her, not because she was some 'hawt gamer gurl', trust me, i was there. I was in charge of after-party cleanup, I know of what i speak. Torrak told me there was already a post on the Alex realm forums razzing the ol' PK guild, and to be honest, it's got no place in this discussion. Yah, I know, i don't play WoW anymore, but as I was riding my lawnmower a bit ago, thinking about what Torrak said, I thought I would find this blog and say my piece.

Oh, and Onyx was a pro guild, Jago. We've seen each other before, I was the GM of Knights of Tyrannor for a little over a year and a half. :)

I hope this mess gets straightened out soon. Drama really is annoying. Oh, and I think that the theory that this is all Ms. Townsend's idea of a PR campaign is rubbish.